Mitt: VP must be ready on Day One

By Alexander Burns

04/17/12 06:27 PM EDT

In an interview on CNBC with Larry Kudlow, Mitt Romney underscores the importance of pure presidential-level readiness in his search for a running mate:

KUDLOW: All right, last one. You've appointed your longtime aide, Beth Myers, to run your VP search, and I just wondered if you had one or two key characteristics that you're looking for in a vice presidential candidate.

Gov. ROMNEY: Well, that's part of the process to look at the history of VP individuals and who served as vice presidents and look at the qualities that are most effective and most helpful. But I can tell you that the one quality that comes to mind immediately is that you want someone who, without question, could lead the country as president if that were necessary. I think all of the political considerations pale in comparison with the consideration of who has the capacity to lead America at a critical time. And I hope if I'm the president that eventuality would never occur. But that has to be the key consideration.

He went on to say that he would have no hesitation about naming a woman to the ticket, and that he didn't have any specific names to float at this time.

The VP-must-be-ready answer is part of what any presidential candidate has to say; it's not like Romney was ever going to say, "Well, Larry, I will probably choose someone for the purposes of winning more electoral votes." But leaning into the readiness/leadership-at-a-critical-time side of things does tend to raise the bar for the eventual running mate's background and qualifications, and maybe raise the stock of a Rob Portman- or Bob McDonnell-type selection, as opposed to, say, a Marco Rubio.